pippin + pearl

Let’s Riot.

erin — Mon, 14 May 2012 19:09:28 +0000

I used to be afraid of colors. I felt most comfy wearing and surrounded by a monochromatic palette or greys, blacks and earth tones. Then came motherhood. I hated pink, but I was forced to just embrace it because there was no escaping the avalanche of pink into my house. Then something happened and I started to love color. Crave color. And now… I’m painting my nails tangerine orange. Who am I? What happened to me? I don’t know, but I LOVE it…

So now I’m transforming into someone who loves color and I want more of it in my life. That’s probably the underlying reason I took up painting again. A desperate cry for a riot of color in my life. So, in case you’re in the same mode, here are a few artists inspiring my color palette these days.

1. Yangyang Pan // “April” via ETSY

2. Lulie Wallace // “Flowers For Layla”

3. Claire Desjardins // “Little Lamb”

Reforming Urban Core

erin — Fri, 11 May 2012 03:07:49 +0000

When I first met Tanna Fried of Urban Core, I was totally struck by how athletic and lean she is, and when I learned that she was a Pilates instructor, I was immediately intrigued. Tanna hired CooperHouse to do some rebranding for her recently renovated Pilates studio and we were thrilled to work with her. Everyone knows I love working with creative types and Tanna has a background in marketing and design, so brainstorming for her rebrand was a fun process. After a few rounds of samples and color palettes, Tanna settled on this logo I created with a combination of typography and an icon. Her goal is to eventually use the icon on a line of fitness wear, so it was important that it was simple and could stand on it’s own.
After settling on the design, I created some simple business cards for Tanna & her partner Robyn.We discussed the idea of embossing the logo at some point in the future, but for her first round (and because her opening was happening in mere days) we chose digital prints.Tanna also wanted her social networks to mirror the look of her new logo and cards, so I created a custom banner for her Facebook page as well as a background for her Twitter page.After doing all this work with Tanna, I was eager to try out her Pilates classes. She doesn’t teach on a mat, like I’ve done in the past, she teaches the original Reformer Pilates. I’ve read a bit about it and I’m excited to try my first class next week. In between standing on my head and pointing my toe at the ceiling, I’ll try to take some notes for you all and let you know how it goes.
Image: Justin Grant

Equine Interest

erin — Wed, 09 May 2012 18:01:29 +0000

I’ve been admiring horses since I was a little girl in 4H. Though the ’80s may have ruined equine based art for a lot of people, there has been a resurgence in the interpretation of this subject matter and I have been VERY excited to see all the different ways that horses are being depicted. Here are a few of my current favorites.

1. Raymond Goins // Atlanta Homes Magazine

2. Mia Linnman // MiaLinnman.Blogspot.com

3. Bert Seabourn // 50 Penn Place Gallery

If you liked these, you should also check out local artist Kristen Vails for her unique interpretation of equine beauty. I’ve had the fortune of seeing some of her paintings in person and they really are incredible.

Details, Folks.

erin — Tue, 08 May 2012 13:00:30 +0000

The most important thing about a party is the details. Things like making sure you don’t plan an event during the week of the Thunder playoffs, or the same weekend that Van Halen comes to Tulsa, or the same day as a holiday, or at a time that works perfectly for the host, but maybe not many others. I have lots of experience throwing theme parties from our days back in Colorado, but it was, of course, a different scene then. (We were younger, we stayed up later, nobody had children…)Anyway, I missed a few of those key details for my Spring Soiree and was flooded with “regrets” last week from a lot of my invitees. So many regrets, that I was ::this:: close to calling the whole thing off, but then I was reminded that the real reason I wanted to throw a party was to have an excuse to get dressed up and hang with my bestie, Lanie, and galdurnit, I wasn’t going to let a bunch of “regrets” deprive me of that.In the end, we had a lovely showing of fabulous guests, in spite of the odds being stacked against us, and we partied into the night, straight 1962 style. I had a blast decorating my house and stocking our retro bar, and playing dress up in the photo booth with lots of old & new friends. The highlight of the night was when Lanie hooked up her turntable outside and rocked vintage records while we all sat around drinking, smoking cigars (mostly just the boys!), and generally pretending like we’d traveled back in time.

I didn’t go too crazy with the decor in the house, but to be honest, most of my decor is straight out of the ’60s anyway. I added lots of candles, doilies and ashtrays (with little piles of candy cigarettes) on my accent tables, and accessorized the table and bar with vintage bowls and platters. Our menu was right out of the Joy of Cooking with beef rib sandwiches, Heinz chili sauce meatballs, fruit salad, 7 layer dip and candied cheese. I didn’t manage to get a photo of the table all decked out with food (hazards of hosting) but it was lovely and everyone seemed to enjoy everything (especially those crazy meatballs!)

I have to send a big thank you to my sister-in-law Sarah for coming over and helping me “fluff” the house and make it guest ready, to my husband Tim for going ALL THE WAY downtown to find me candy cigarettes and putting up with my pre-party madness, and to Rachel for loaning me the photo booth setup. Thank you to everyone who joined us and got into the spirit of things!

It’s Friday & I’m out.

erin — Fri, 04 May 2012 18:45:52 +0000

Thank you all for bearing with me during this crazy past couple of weeks. I’ve decided that I need to stop trying to do EVERYTHING all by myself, and plan to spend next week delegating a bit more, AND looking into finding an intern for CooperHouse to help handle day to day stuff. (More to come on that, of course) My goal is going to be to take at least one day in the studio every week so that I can continue to create art, for the sake of my sanity.

I’m taking off early today to finish up prep for the Spring Soiree and all the other activities we have packed into the weekend. (2 graduations, 3 festive parties & a partridge in a pear tree!)

Here’s a little of what we were up to this week here at CooperHouse.

- Colorado Besties, Lena Gordon & her girlfriend Sam, paid us a visit and we took them to the Art Festival.

- Adele tried rice cereal and liked it. Such a big girl already at 4 months!

- Drank lots of coffee and worked like crazy

- Squidged lots of baby cheeks

- Helped out at the MHNA Litter Blitz, pulling weeds and spreading mulch

- Got my new Warby Parker specs — I’ve got a whole post about that! :)

- Hung “Nova” at my friend Tanna’s new Pilates Studio, Urban Core in Collonade Square.

- Worked on redecorating the downstairs a bit for our upcoming party

- Daddy finished our new back porch — we have rails now, y’all!

- We are testing out new dining chairs from my friend, Katie O’ Brien’s furniture store, True North Living. We LOVE this modern style with our antique table, so we’ve ordered a set in a matching color.

- Planning like crazy for our Spring Soiree tomorrow night! Ack! So much to do still.

- Elise is going through a phase where she flips out every time we leave the room. Are the terrible twos going to bleed over into terrible threes? ;) We’ll see.

Thanks for reading and I’ll be back next week with regular posts!